The sickness! Gah, the sickness!

Yes, I am sick. I blame the coughing girl in my Salzburg hostel. But then, is she really to blame? I tried to cancel my hostel in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, but it had a 48 hour cancellation window! So, who’s to blame, really?? I don’t know. At least I determined I would try my very hardest never to cough and to be as respectful as possible if I really had to cough in the end! As opposed to Salzburg girl, who coughed into the room unabated and unashamed!

I boarded my morning bus from Bled, clean laundry in hand, and saw some pretty Slovenian countryside along the way.

It was a short, one-hour bus ride, and I arrived in the late morning. I left my bags at the hostel and planned out how to spend my day with such low energy. I really was moving much slower than usual! I was a bit achy, a bit lethargic, and my throat hurt. Add the sunshine and heat, and I made it my mission to move very, very slow so as not to topple over in the middle of the road somewhere!

When I went to use the toilet before leaving my hostel, I was startled to find this restroom straight out of many nightmares:

Hahaha. Turns out they are just renovating, which meant I had to walk up three flights of stairs every time I wanted to pee or blow my nose. Oh well!

I decided to spend my day with some slow nature explorations. I was honestly a bit sad to be in such a hustling, bustling, modern city after the quiet serenity of Lake Bled. So, I walked along the river and made my way to the botanical gardens.

The gardens had a nice café, so I ordered some homemade iced tea and a “toast with ham and cheese.” Nice, light, and refreshing. A good snack while I made a good dent in my book.

I wandered the gardens a little more after that, and then I made my way toward Ljubljana Castle, up on a hill.

My, my, it was slow going. I felt like a sick person, alright! I stopped to sit on every bench, constantly sipped at my water, and did my best to keep my heart rate down.

Luckily, most of the path (lined with parsnips, for some reason) was shaded, and I did make my way up to the castle.

I was a bit peckish by this point, so when I came to the bottom of the hill and found a market wrapping up, I bought a pack of the tastiest looking little strawberries ever!

About half tasted as good as they looked, haha.

Rounding another corner, I found a busy, joyful food market with dishes from all over the world, and it all looked so yummy. Pad Thai, paella, spring rolls, Turkish sweets, cruffins, poke bowls. It was so hard to choose!

In the spirit of feeding my body good foods, I decided to get a vegan “chicken” Caesar salad, but I paired it with a glass of sangria. It was so yummy!!!

Turns out the marker is only on Fridays in the late spring and summer, so I really lucked out finding it! I also got a pistachio cruffin and a cookie to go.

I ate these back in my hostel. The cookie was amazing. The cruffin was not. Waaaay too much pistachio filling. Should have just gotten a second cookie!

I managed not to cough at all that first day and first night, but I was pretty snotty. Had to keep getting up to blow my nose. The beds were SO loud, and the room was SO quiet, so that kind of sucked. The beds were also curled up about eight inches on the head and foot of the bed, like the fitted sheet was too small for the bed or something? Very strange.

In the morning, I was originally planning (and very much looking forward to) visiting one of the vast cave systems in Slovenia. I’ve seen a few big cave systems recently, especially in Vietnam, and I’ve thought they were some of the coolest things, so I was pumped to learn there were some here! However, I was so tired, and I’d seen so little of the city on my first day. Spending hours on the bus also just didn’t seem like fun. So, I decided to leave out the caves. I’m a little bit bummed, but honestly, I think it was very much the right decision.

My hostel was right on the river, right next to all these little restaurants, so when I made the split second decision not to go to the bus station, I sat down at one of these and attempted to order a hot chocolate.

Awkwardly, nothing came out of my mouth! I couldn’t get the words out! I had to clear my throat several times, and then eventually, I just ordered a tea. Lol. It was pretty embarrassing.

When the waiter came back, I’d recovered enough to order a croissant, not trusting myself to ask for a breakfast menu. He gave me a few options, and I selected chocolate. Oh boy, was this one of the best chocolate croissants I’ve ever had!! It was warm and chocolate filled and so soft!!

I made another good dent in my book before continuing into the city.

I wish I’d gone straight back to the market, because it had been mostly closed down when I found it the day before, but I instead crossed the river toward the sound of a man on a microphone that had been going all morning.

There was an adorable brother and sister playing tuba and trumpet in the street, and they were really great!!

When I finally reached the microphone man, I found it to be the finishing area for some sort of city run. I caught the tail end of a men’s choir singing a song many in the crowd knew and sang along to. Very cute!

I picked up a treat nearby that only cost three euros and weighed about a pound.

Some kind of layered dough thing with some kind of mild cheese? I didn’t love it, unfortunately. I ate about a third before I had to toss it. The doughy parts were fine, but the cheesy parts were sour and not easy to get down.

By this time, I decided I was going to go full leisure and check out some of the museums. I started with the National Museum and the natural history museum, which were combined into one building.

The natural history museum had a small whale skeleton, and I LOVE whale skeletons.

The national museum had a lot of fun artifacts found within Slovenia that dated back thousands of years, so it was almost more a history of time rather than of Slovenia’s recent past.

I can’t remember precisely, but I’m pretty sure this wooden boat was thousands of years old and preserved in a big of some sort?

I did get to see a (fake) critter that I was looking forward to seeing in the caves! A little albino “dragon” creature that has evolved to have no eyes and only three toes on its front feet and two toes on the back! So fun!

I wasn’t planning to visit any other museums, but the modern art museum was only five euros to enter, so I couldn’t pass it up.

I ended up really loving it! I was just about the only person in the whole place, save the two cute, bored security guards who stood up every time I came within sight and then followed me a little bit into adjacent rooms. Lolol. Poor things. Seriously must have been bored out of their minds.

The art was fun and interesting, though!

The cherry on top was the museum café in the basement. I love me a good museum café. This one had cheesecake, and it was AWESOME. So creamy, with a slight floral hint, and it paired well with the chai latte I got on the side.

Most of the café attendees were actually outside, at ground level, so one of the waiters had to keep jumping in and out of the high window to get to them. It was pretty fun to watch.

I lingered here a long time, then made my way across the street to visit the Russian Orthodox church.

Then to Tivoli Park across the highway.

Feeling pretty fulfilled and wanting to visit the market again, I headed back towards the river.

But ugh! The market closes even earlier on Sundays! So I’d missed it again! Quite frustrating. I felt like this:

Haha.

The food market had transformed into a gin and cocktail market for Saturday.

I wandered the many bridges and churches in the area for a bit, really admiring the cast iron doors on the Ljubljana Cathedral.

Then I made my way back to the empty market square where I’d seen a waiter delivering some especially yummy-looking soup. I ordered it and a gin and tonic. Yum!!!!

The waiter was quite easy on the eyes, and he was very complimentary. Complimented my dinner choice, my drink choice, and the fact that I managed to finish all of the soup, despite leaving half the bread basket full.

He also asked, “How’s the sugar in your body? Is in the right position?” He asked this while motioning toward his own belly. I assume he was asking if I was full? Or satisfied??? Lolol. Not sure exactly, but I said yes and made the same gesture to my own stomach. Bahahahaha.

The theme of the day was Spend a Lot of Time at Every Eatery Place, and dinner was no exception. I read a lot, and then chatted with Sean for a bit. Very nice! It rained at one point, but I was safe under my umbrella.

I got a kick out of some of the vending machines here. Austria was full of cigarette vending machines, and they were often visited by passersby. Slovenia had egg vending machines and raw (unpasteurized) milk vending machines. I had to try!

As I wandered my way slowly back along the river, I found a little art gallery and some fun, quiet streets and statues.

A nice day in the end, and a nice visit to Slovenia!

I did cough a lot more that night, always trying desperately to muffle myself with my covers or my pillow, and clinging fiercely to my box of Ricola cough drops I’d picked up. Sigh…. I hope I didn’t get anybody else sick.

In the morning, I ran to the market one last time and bought some cute art. Even though they were just getting set up, somehow there was more going on at 8:30am than at 4pm!

Off to the busses again.

Hope I get better soon!! Until then,

Najboljše želje,

-Lizzy-wa